Occupying about one-eighth of Australia’s total land area, South Australia is fourth in size among the country’s eight states and territories. Its people make up less than 8 percent of the Australian population, ranking fifth among the populations of the states and territories.

The settled parts of South Australia form the western end of a crescent of closely settled and productive land in southeastern Australia that is the economic heartland of the country. The state’s commercial links are strongest with Melbourne and Sydney. Area 379,725 square miles (983,482 square km). Population (2011) 1,596,572.

Land

Relief

South Australia is a land of vast plains, low uplands, and extensive salt- or clay-encrusted lake beds that rarely contain water. More than four-fifths of the state is less than 1,000 feet (300 metres) above sea level. The highest point in the state, Mount Woodroffe, in the Musgrave Ranges of the northwest interior, rises to only 4,708 feet (1,435 metres).

The generally smooth southeasterly trend of the coastline is interrupted by the major indentations of Spencer Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent, which extend inland some 200 and 100 miles (320 and 160 km), respectively. Kangaroo Island, which has an area of about 1,680 square miles (4,350 square km), lies south of Gulf St. Vincent.

The state can be divided into seven major regions on the basis of surface landforms. The four westernmost regions are part of a vast and geologically stable shield of ancient Precambrian rocks (at least 540 million years old). In the far northwest are the Musgrave and Everard ranges, composed of granite and gneiss and forming bald rounded hills or rugged hilly terrain. In the far west the Great Victoria Desert extends into Western Australia, consisting of west-east-trending sand dunes. Southward this region adjoins the eastern portion of the Nullarbor Plain, a flat limestone plateau dotted with sinkholes and underlain by very long caves that contain some of the oldest dated evidence of humans in Australia. This plain meets the ocean at the head of the Great Australian Bight in a spectacular line of cliffs. The Eyre Peninsula, although part of the continental shield, is climatically moister and consists of low, rounded hills, often of granite, rising above limestone and stabilized sand dune plains.

Lake Eyre, South Australia.

Don Fuchs/AGE fotostock

The south-central part of the state—the gulfs and adjacent ranges and plains—was the region most attractive to European settlement because of its higher precipitation and more diverse and productive soils. The main feature is an arc of sedimentary rocks, predominantly of sandstone and quartzite, extending from Kangaroo Island through the Mount Lofty Range to the Flinders Ranges. These rocks have been folded and faulted repeatedly, creating a sequence of narrow ranges, intervening or flanking valleys, and small plains of alluvium.

The sixth region is the Murray Plain and the Southeast Plain, developed on lime-rich deposits from early Cenozoic time (roughly 50 million years ago). The Murray Plain is characterized by west-east-trending stabilized sand dunes. In the wetter Southeast Plain there are parallel limestone ridges with flats, formerly inundated in winter but now drained for farming. Near the town of Mount Gambier, several prominent volcanic cones and craters mark eruptions that occurred some 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.

The final region encompasses the deserts of the north and northeast, consisting of stony or sand dune deserts, low tablelands, and vast dry lakes. Lake Eyre, the largest of these, only rarely fills completely with water; it lies some 50 feet (15 metres) below sea level, the lowest point on the continent.

Drainage

South Australia is notably deficient in rivers. The Murray River is the only large permanent stream, and, before its flow was regulated by barrages and upstream dams, even this dried to a series of saline pools during severe droughts. Seasonally flowing streams from the Mount Lofty Ranges have been dammed to provide metropolitan Adelaide with more than half of its water needs, the balance being met by two pipelines constructed over the ranges from the Murray River in 1954 and 1973, respectively. Almost the entire flow of the Murray arises from precipitation in Victoria, New South Wales, and, to a lesser extent, Queensland. In addition to supplementing the water supply of metropolitan Adelaide, pipelines from the Murray River service the industrial towns at the head of Spencer Gulf and provide domestic and livestock needs for a wide area of farmland. The great bulk of the South Australian population depends wholly or partly on reticulated (piped) water from the Murray. It is also the major source of irrigation water for agriculture. With supplies of water from the Murray becoming increasingly unreliable at the turn of the 21st century, the South Australian government began planning for the installation of desalinization facilities.

Groundwater accounts for some one-third of the total water used in the state. Two-thirds of this amount is utilized on farmlands, mainly in the extreme southeast, where large yields of low-salinity water are derived from the cavernous limestone and sand dune aquifers. The Great Artesian Basin extends into the arid northeastern quarter of the state, and deep wells tapping this source have been vital in maintaining pastoral farming and, since the late 20th century, the large mining development at Olympic Dam.

Climate

South Australia is the driest of the Australian states. Only about one-fifth of the area receives annual precipitation of more than 10 inches (250 mm), and less than half of that has more than 16 inches (400 mm). The higher rainfall occurs along the southern coasts and the north-south-trending Mount Lofty and Flinders ranges. The highest falls occur near Mount Lofty (47 inches [1,200 mm]), and the lowest occur in the vicinity of Lake Eyre (6 inches [150 mm] or less).

With maritime climatic influences drawn inland by Spencer Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent, the southern coastal zone of the state has been characterized as having a “Mediterranean” climate, with mild to cool wet winters and hot dry summers. By contrast, rainfall in the arid interior is highly erratic. The two dominant weather influences derive from the Southern Ocean to the south and from the continental interior to the north. These can produce sharp temperature contrasts at any time of the year, most markedly in summer, when scorching northerly winds can give way within hours to cool southerlies off the ocean.

In Adelaide the average daily maximum temperatures range from a summer peak of 84 °F (29 °C) in January to a winter low of 59 °F (15 °C) in July; average daily minimum temperatures range from 63 °F (17 °C) in February to 45 °F (7 °C) in July. In the southern settled coastal zone the annual average number of “hot” days in excess of 86 °F is from 10 to 50, whereas in the northern two-thirds of the state it is more than 110 days per year.

South Australia is relatively free of damaging weather events, apart from droughts. Violent storms are rare and flood hazards minimal. Summer bushfires are the most serious weather-related hazards; notable widespread and destructive fires occurred in January 1939 and February 1983.

Soils

Sand and lime are the dominant features of the soils of the state’s extensive plains, whereas well-developed loam and clay soils are of limited extent. In their natural state most soils are deficient in essential plant nutrients and tend to have hard-setting surfaces that seal readily under raindrops, leading to erosion of bare ground in heavy storms. A century of experiment with fertilizers and pasture management has solved many of the nutrient limitations of soils in the regions of better rainfall. The most important soils agriculturally have been the hard red duplex soils of the lands near the gulfs.

Plant and animal life

Vegetation in the vast arid areas ranges from low woodlands of acacia species, cypress pines (Callitris), and beefwood (Casuarina), through shrub savannas dominated by acacia, to low shrublands of bluebush (Maireana and Chenopodium) and saltbush (Atriplex) that provide the basis for inland sheep and cattle grazing. The stony and sandy deserts support a sparse growth of hummock grasslands of porcupine (also called spinifex) grass (Triodia).

Before European settlement the southern regions, with higher rainfall and a more temperate climate, supported three principal ecosystems. Dry sclerophyll forest, dominated by rough-barked species of eucalyptus, occurred in areas receiving 30 inches (750 mm) of rain or more. Mallee vegetation, a tall open scrub of multistemmed eucalypts, occurred inland in areas with rainfall between about 12 and 20 inches (305 and 510 mm). In the intermediate rainfall zone was an open grassy savanna with smooth-barked eucalypts; this was the area that attracted the first European settlers. In more recent times, extensive managed forests, principally of pine (Pinus radiata), were established by the state government and by private companies on former scrubland and heathland in the southeast.

South Australia shares many animal, bird, and reptile species with adjacent parts of Australia. Widespread clearing of vegetation for agriculture and the competition of domesticated livestock in the arid pastoral zone have depleted numbers of most wild fauna, especially mammals. However, the echidna (spiny anteater), an unusual egg-laying mammal, is still seen regularly on the South Australian mainland and on Kangaroo Island. More than one-fourth of the some 50 species of marsupials originally native to the state are now extinct, but others are still common, including western gray kangaroos, red kangaroos, and brush-tailed possums. The state has the sole surviving population of the formerly more widespread hairy-nosed wombat. Hundreds of species of birds (including more than 20 introduced species) inhabit or visit South Australia. The state is also home to more than 200 species of reptiles and amphibians. The gibber dragon (Ctenophorus gibba), a type of lizard, and the Woomera slider (Lerista elongata), a variety of skink, are among several species of reptiles that are endemic to the state. Common amphibians include the brown tree frog, the spotted grass frog, and the eastern banjo toad.

Short-beaked echidna, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Kristi L. Bowman

People

Population composition

In common with the other Australian states and territories, the ethnic composition of South Australia’s population has changed markedly since World War II. Before the war, most of the people in the state traced their ancestry to Britain; the state has since become a more diverse, multicultural society.

In the early 21st century, some one-fifth of South Australians were born overseas. The state’s population growth rate has exceeded that of Australia as a whole during only two periods. The first, from 1861 to 1881, was an era of rapid wheat-farming expansion and copper-mine development. The second, from 1947 to 1966, was a time when manufacturing grew rapidly and was associated with a program of European immigration fostered by federal and state governments. This brought large numbers of non-English-speaking immigrants from Italy, Greece, areas of the Soviet bloc in eastern Europe, Germany, and the Netherlands, in addition to a substantial British inflow. Since the last quarter of the 20th century the net gains from immigration have been smaller and have been composed largely of immigrants from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and European and Southeast Asian countries.

Settlement patterns and demographic trends

South Australia has a closely settled core surrounded by an area of diminishing population density and decreasing economic productivity. The heart of the state, metropolitan Adelaide, is home to some three-fourths of the state’s total population. With ongoing rural-to-urban migration, the city continues to expand.

Near Adelaide the land is used intensively for dairy, fruit, and vegetable farming, and the area includes the well-known wine-producing regions of the Barossa Valley and the Southern Vales. Beyond this zone are the intensive sheep- and cattle-raising districts of the southeast and the wheat-, barley-, and sheep-farming districts in the Murray River and north-central areas and on the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas. Beyond the edge of the cultivated land, sheep grazing occurs on native pastures and shrubs. Most remote of all are the extensive cattle-raising properties of the northern arid zone.

Outside of the greater Adelaide area, there are some 60 cities and towns of more than 1,000 people. The largest cities are Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Port Augusta, and Port Pirie. Roughly one-tenth of the population is classified as rural.

Compared with the rest of Australia, the census profile shows that the South Australian population generally has fewer children under 15 years of age but more adults over 65 years, a slightly lower percentage of persons born overseas, fewer Roman Catholics and Anglicans, more than three times the Australian average of Lutherans, a smaller share of households in the top income brackets, and generally a higher level of unemployment. For more than a century, South Australian women have had fewer children than women in other states, and the average life expectancy has continued to rise. These factors, combined with persistent out-migration and low levels of immigration, have held South Australia’s population growth in check; since the late 1980s the state’s growth rate has remained among the lowest in the country.

The Aboriginal population is small, constituting less than 2 percent of the state’s total population; roughly half of the community resides in the Adelaide vicinity, and much of the remainder lives in the remote northwest, where title rights to traditional lands were first granted in 1981. Access to quality health care, secure employment, adequate education, and other social services has remained a challenge for the Aboriginal population.

Economy

South Australia shares many features of the Australian economy in general—notably an agricultural and mining base oriented strongly toward export markets, and a manufacturing superstructure concerned mainly with the home market and dependent to a considerable degree on the assistance of tariffs on imported goods. Estimates of the value of goods produced in the early 21st century showed that more than half of the state’s total income came from manufacturing, and roughly one-fourth was from farming. Most of the remainder was derived from mines, quarries, and natural gas fields, and a small fraction came from fisheries. A small portion of the workforce was employed in the primary activities of farming, forestry, fishing, and mining; a slightly larger segment—some one-tenth—was in manufacturing; and the rest of the labour force was in construction, sales, education, finance, administration, and community and personal services.

Agriculture and forestry

Wheat growing for export has long been a mainstay of South Australian farming, and up to about one-seventh of Australian production of wheat comes from the state. Barley is a crop of more recent importance, and the state produces about one-fourth of the national crop. Livestock production ranges from extensive “open range” cattle rearing in the northern deserts to intensive pig and poultry raising near Adelaide. South Australia’s sheep make up about one-tenth of the Australian total, and its dairy cattle make up about half that proportion.

Intensive production of grapes, vegetables, and orchard fruit (especially oranges), normally grown under irrigation, involves some one-fifth of all farm holdings. Fruits and vegetables are grown in districts of varying soil quality and climate, ranging from the hot-summer irrigation districts along the Murray River through the rain-fed Barossa and Clare valleys to the cool-climate districts of the Mount Lofty Range and the southeast. Grapes alone constitute some one-sixth of the value of the state’s primary farm commodities. More than two-fifths of Australia’s vineyard area is located in South Australia.

Australia’s largest grouping of managed softwood plantations, largely Pinus radiata, is in the southeast of the state and supports Australia’s most important concentration of wood-processing industries.

Resources and power

The Australian mining industry began with small-scale extraction of lead and silver in the hills near Adelaide in 1841. This was followed by large copper discoveries at Kapunda, Burra, Moonta, and Kadina between 1842 and 1861. In the 1970s one of the world’s largest deposits of copper-gold-uranium mineralization ever found was identified in the desert at Olympic Dam, west of Lake Torrens, and commercial mining began in 1988. Mining operations in copper, iron, and uranium expanded rapidly in the following two decades. The South Australian government provided enthusiastic support for large-scale mineral exploration and exploitation in the north and west of the state. In addition, advances in technology have facilitated the mining of deep and extensive mineral deposits in central South Australia. Large reserves of high-grade iron ore were identified in 1890 in the Middleback Range, west of Whyalla. From 1915 these ores were shipped to Newcastle and later to Port Kembla, both in New South Wales. Local production of pig iron began when the first blast furnace was opened at Whyalla in 1941, and construction of an integrated iron and steel plant began there in 1958. Most of the world’s opals come from South Australia, from three fields in the central interior deserts at Coober Pedy, Mintabie, and Andamooka. Much of Australia’s salt and gypsum comes from coastal sources in South Australia.

South Australia’s nonrenewable energy resources are remote from population centres. Coal reserves, although substantial, are low-grade subbituminous and lignite deposits; impurities restrict their use. The long-known coal deposits at Leigh Creek have been worked by large-scale opencut operations since 1954. Coal from Leigh Creek supplies electric power stations at Port Augusta. Natural gas (largely methane) has played a major role in the state’s energy supply since 1970. Extensive gas and petroleum fields have been developed since their first discovery in 1963 in desert lands of the Cooper Basin in the remote northeast. Gas pipelines to Adelaide and Sydney were completed in 1969 and 1976, respectively. The Torrens Island power station at Adelaide is the state’s largest electric power-generating unit and the first in Australia to use natural gas. By the early 2010s South Australia had become the country’s leading state in terms of renewable energy production, deriving more than two-fifths of its energy production from renewable sources, principally wind farms and rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. A pipeline some 400 miles (650 km) long brings a mix of oil and gas from the interior to Port Bonython, near the head of Spencer Gulf, where the various hydrocarbons are processed; a considerable amount is converted to liquefied petroleum gas and is exported.

Manufacturing

To a long-established base of primary processing industries there was added in the 1920s a motor vehicle assembly industry. A manufacturing boom of the mid-20th century was based on the expansion of vehicle manufacture and of production of larger household durable goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, and stoves. Machinery and equipment have remained South Australia’s primary manufactures into the 21st century, followed by processed food and beverages and metal products. A soda ash plant near Port Adelaide is the main producer in the Australian alkali industry. One of the world’s largest multimetal smelters operates at Port Pirie, accounting for a significant portion of the world’s output of refined lead and zinc. A large steel mill at Whyalla makes structural steel sections.

Transport

Passenger and freight transport services of all types centre on Adelaide, although substantial export cargoes of grain and minerals are sent directly overseas and interstate from the state’s other significant outports. Port Adelaide is the dominant port for seaborne imports. Roads, most of which are paved, carry the bulk of the state’s passenger and general freight traffic. South Australia’s rail system is owned and operated primarily by private companies, with an emphasis on long-haul mainline traffic to and from places outside the state. The State Transport Authority of South Australia operates a suburban passenger rail system within metropolitan Adelaide that is integrated with an extensive bus system and a streetcar line. Australia’s most innovative public transport facility, the German-designed O-Bahn guided busway, provides high-speed access via the Torrens Valley to Adelaide’s outer northeastern suburbs.

Railway station at Port Lincoln, South Australia, Australia.

Brian Voon Yee Yap

Adelaide Airport, one of Australia’s major commercial air hubs, provides international passenger and freight services. In addition, hundreds of regional airports and airstrips are scattered across the state, although only a handful of these have scheduled flights. Another few dozen offer irregular commercial charter services and provide emergency access to remote areas. The overwhelming majority of the state’s regional airports serve private interests.

The Australian state of South Australia occupies an arid part of the country. It has borders with the state of Western Australia to the west; the Northern Territory to the north; the states of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria to the east; and the Great Australian Bight of the Indian Ocean to the south. Its land area is 379,725 square miles (983,482 square kilometers)-roughly four times the size of the U.S. state of Michigan or the United Kingdom. Adelaide is the state capital and chief port, and about three-fourths of the state’s people live in its metropolitan area. Population (2011) 1,596,572.

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